Do you ever need to know where your merchandise is along it's journey from the source to the store?

Each stop along the way plays a critical role, but it also creates potential cracks your products can slip through. Between inventory shortages from inaccurate deliveries to lost sales (and lost future customers) who left empty handed after learning their online order is out of stock, inaccurate inventory can hurt your business badly.

Achieving accurate inventory visibility is key to control — and that’s why maximizing value from your supply chain begins with investing in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID).

By tagging your products at the source with RFID-enabled sensors, you’ll achieve end-to-end visibility into where your products are across your enterprise.

In fact, with RFID-enabled, item-level supply chain visibility, you can know precisely which items are enroute or in stock in the DC or at the store at any given moment, allowing you to:

• Gain end-to-end visibility into the supply chain, from the point of manufacture to the storefront
• Reduce stockouts and markdowns
• Fulfill omnichannel orders without frustration
• Deliver stellar customer experiences

Let's explore how RFID delivers all this and more.

How does this happen? Let's start with the basics.

RFID product tags applied at the source gives you a window into your real-time inventory, enabling you to accurately view products right down to the unique item level.

With each product attached to a digital trail, you'll gain insights at the time of packing to ensure orders are filled correctly, along with outbound verification to confirm they made it out the door.

Having item-level inventory visibility can unlock new process efficiencies, too. Take regular cycle counting, for instance: Rather than having to close your distribution center for labor- and time-intensive manual counting, your RFID-tagged products can make the process easier and more accurate.

"Say you have a million items in a warehouse. With our software, you don't have to count them all at the same time," said Umesh Cooduvalli, business development executive at Sensormatic Solutions.

He noted that retailers can segment their inventory counting by category, for example, to save time and improve efficiency — but it's not just warehouses and distribution centers that can benefit from RFID. This type of automated (and accurate) counting can also pay dividends in stores, as well.

"You can count everything in the store now with just a mobile device," said Cooduvalli. "We can count 10,000 items in 10 minutes — it's that fast. So for a typical, medium-sized store with about 30,000 items, that means you can count the entire store in just 30 minutes."

Ship to store and buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS) — or 'Click and Collect' as it's known outside the U.S. — are now must-have customer conveniences. But with more people electing for in-store pick up, today's retail locations are also forced to function as mini fulfillment centers. There's just one catch: Most stores aren't optimized or even equipped to do so.

"Stores are getting tasks that have historically been for warehouses equipped with tools and defined paths to pick products as efficiently as possible," said Jamie Kress, RFID and digital leader, North American sales at Sensormatic Solutions. "But now, you're seeing those same orders going to stores. Customers expect the same level of efficiency (as they would from a fulfillment center), but the employees have none of the tools to do so."

As a result, orders go unfulfilled or partially filled, wait times grow, and associates waste time looking for inventory items that may not even be in the store to begin with.

Fortunately, there's a solution.

"Utilizing our software and our handhelds, employees can easily review all online orders and know exactly what's in stock because someone scanned the store that morning or the night before with RFID," Kress added.

The result? Better profitability and happier customers, both of which are things every retailer wants.

If supply chain challenges are impacting your ability to deliver what today's customer wants, you're not alone — but you may be in luck.

Implementing a source tagging program and deploying the relevant RFID solution technology may be easier, faster, and more cost-effective than you think, and they're vital for building the seamless supply chain that retail success today requires.

To learn more about how we can help you identify problem areas, scope a pilot, or deploy a new solution, connect with a Sensormatic Solutions expert today.